complete neoob question.Best linux dist for multimedia/games
 

Getting sick of virus's on my XP (xtra poo).

Want to be able to run windows games and a good mp3/multimedia player on linux.

what is the best version of linux to use.........??? (nd possibly easiest to adapt too>>>>>>>)

Hi
Easiest for me was Suse.
It doesn't really matter what distro you use, but more the apps you use.
I use KDE for desktop management, Amarok for mp3's and XINE for watching my dvd's and other video files.

If you wanna learn linux, then you're at the right place.
These guys at LQ aren't shy to fellow members.

Well... if you really want games, I'd suggest you'll pass on moving to linux.

If you want maybe, just a bit of games (best, well working, are doom3 and UT2K4) you can move to linux, also you can play games via Wine, Cedega, or even install VMWARE on Linux that will contain XP for games or so.

Best distribs for what you've mentioned in my opinion are :



Mandriva, Fedora Core.


GOOD LUCK!

i'm trying to get games running onder linux for the past 2 years, and i would not say it's impossible.

i must admit, gaming in windows still feels better and does have a better performance. nevertheless, i can get WOW, oblivion, star wars empire at war, c&c generals, civ4 and many others to run in just about any distro.

if you are new to linux, i suggest you use either mandriva, suse or ubuntu.
you need to install "fontforge", witch is usually provided on the distro disks. you allso need some other dependency's, but these are in most cases allready installed.

go to http://www.winehq.com and download wine from source.
unpack using "tar jxf wine-(versionhere)" depending on the version/name of the package. this would extract the package.
go to the newly made directory and run "./configure"
this will show a lot of text, but the end is what you need.
look at what the "warnings" say, they will warn you of missing apps/libs. if any is missing it could have dramatic results.
(eg: if fontforge is missing, you won't have any fonts)

after this, run "make depend && make"
all this as a normal user, in a terminal windows inside your X server.
now you have to login as root (using "su")
run "make test" to see if it just hangs, if not, run "make install" to install.
now run "winecfg" and set it up according to your needs/system.

this would get you as close as i can bring you to running games under linux.

the rest, is all a matter of personal choice. i find suse and mandriva best for multimedia, but that's just me.

now, if you want to play games and be rid of virusses and other crap, best you can do is running both windows and linux in dualboot. a linux for everything that has to do with internet, and a windows for games.
you can still safely play games on the internet with windows, it's mainly the surfing and e-mail that's the problem.

Well you can make about any distribution to run your games provided you have Cedega (preferably) or WINE. However we cannot tell you which flavor of ice-cream you'll like (which distribution), but we try by giving you good options that have good hardware detection and lots of packages available and installed by default so here's my little list.

PCLinuxOS
SuSE
Ubuntu/Kubuntu (If you're porting from Windows it will probably best to have a KDE desktop in the beginning, you might like it more, I personally prefer Gnome - Kubuntu is just the KDE version of Ubuntu).
Fedora Core 6
Mandriva

:D

cedega is only good when you purchase it.
when you are thinking of installing cedega from cvs, think wine instead.
you might be able to run more on cedega cvs, but the configuration might be to hard for a new linux user. i'm guessing "winecfg" will be a pain in the a** since you best set your configuration anew for each game/app.

one verry good hint: in winecfg, at the video options, set "emulate graphical desktop" when you test the games, if it hangs or fails, it won't take your whole X down with it.

Mainly im only trying to get warcraft3 civ4 and aoe1,2 or 3 running. mostly for net use. appreciate ur help guys